In recent times, there have been rapid advancements in development and use of technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality and so forth for presenting a simulated environment to a user of a specialized device. Specifically, such simulated environments provide the user with an enhanced perception of reality around him/her, by employing contemporary techniques such as stereoscopy. Furthermore, such simulated environments relate to fully virtual environments (namely, virtual reality environments) as well as real world environments including virtual objects therein (namely, augmented reality environments, mixed reality environments). Moreover, examples of the specialized devices include virtual reality headsets, virtual reality glasses, augmented reality headsets, augmented reality glasses, mixed reality headsets, and so forth.
Typically, in such specialized devices, different two-dimensional images of a real-world scene are captured using suitable imaging equipment (for example, such as cameras). Generally, such devices include two cameras that are arranged at a distance from each other. Therefore, the different two-dimensional images represent different perspective views of the real-world scene, which are to be presented to the user's eyes. Typically such two-dimensional images allow for providing the user with a perception of three-dimensional depth within the real-world scene.
However, the existing imaging equipment have certain limitations associated therewith. Firstly, when the imaging equipment includes two cameras that are separated from each other by a fixed distance, the fixed distance is often substantially equal to an average inter-pupillary distance of humans. However, the average inter-pupillary distance of humans is not constant, and substantially varies from person to person. Notably, an inter-pupillary distance of a given user substantially changes with physical development (namely, growth) of the given user. For example, an inter-pupillary distance of a child is substantially different from that of an adult. Furthermore, the average inter-pupillary distance also varies substantially among users in a same age group. For example, a middle-aged woman may have a lesser average inter-pupillary distance as compared to a middle aged-man. Moreover, the inter-pupillary distance of the given user varies substantially with whether the user is focusing at nearby objects or far-away objects within the real world scene. The existing imaging equipment having fixed separation between the two cameras are unable to accommodate for the aforesaid variations in the inter-pupillary distance of users due to anatomical diversity therebetween, as well as variations in the inter-pupillary distance of users due to focus of the user's gaze at different objects within the real world scene. Secondly, when the imaging equipment includes two cameras that are movable for adjusting separation therebetween, physical movement of the two cameras is very cumbersome. Furthermore, an arrangement of such movable imaging equipment is complex and bulky. Moreover, such imaging equipment is unable to move the two cameras in real-time for adjusting the separation therebetween according to the focus of the user's gaze. Owing to the aforesaid limitations of conventional imaging equipment, the different two-dimensional images captured thereby, represent views of the real-world scene that are substantially different from views of the real-world scene as seen via the user's eyes. Therefore, when such images are displayed to the user (via the specialized devices) for presenting the simulated environment, the user's experience of the simulated environment is suboptimal.
Therefore, in light of the foregoing discussion, there exists a need to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks associated with imaging equipment for producing images to be presented to users of specialized devices.